


New Town, New Job, New Friends (M/M Squidward x Reader)

by bubblegumdevil



Category: SpongeBob SquarePants (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst to Fluff, Co-workers, Depression, Eventual Romance, Fanfiction, Fluff and Humor, Homelessness, Light Angst, M/M, Mental Health Issues, POV Third Person Omniscient, Slow Build, Strangers to Lovers, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, squid is just gay and sad
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-18
Updated: 2021-03-18
Packaged: 2021-03-26 19:35:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30110976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bubblegumdevil/pseuds/bubblegumdevil
Summary: Reader just arrived in Bikini Bottom and gets a job at the Krusty Krab, quickly noticing a grumpy older squid who now suddenly can't get out of you're head. [Story has been changed from a merman reader to a general reader since I figure you may as well choose your own species!]
Relationships: Squidward Tentacles/Reader
Comments: 3
Kudos: 3





	New Town, New Job, New Friends (M/M Squidward x Reader)

**Author's Note:**

> Warning for depression, drug use (weed and psychedelics cause art), mental health topics, and temporary homelessness.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You've arrived in Bikini Bottom and go to an interview where a very boisterous manager of a popular local restaurant. Hired on the spot you meet your new co-workers and have to find a place to sleep for the night, thankfully you make common ground with a certain grumpy octopus.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Non-Ironic Squidward love is the only thing getting me through quarantine. Enjoy. [Chapter still a work in progress.]

The long day shift was dull and gruelling, 10 hours hadn't been this rough in months. The front end cashier sighed and rested his head on his tentacle, his chest felt especially heavy as he pretended to read his magazine. The new meds weren't working... His face in his magazine, he intentionally ignored the ring of the front door opening and the figure approaching behind the pages.

"Excuse me..? I'm supposed to talk to a Eugene Krabs?" A soft male voice spoke up, causing a curious eye of the octopus to peak at the customer. A softly smiling male looked nervously back at him, making him suddenly lose the snarky words at the back of his throat. Instead, he found himself wordlessly pointing to his boss's office.

"O-Oh! Thank you." The stranger smiled and walked to the door, disappearing into the room. Quickly trying to brush off the odd feelings, getting back to work staring at the fine art in his magazine. The silence didn't last too long however, within a few minutes of him disappearing, the door to the office swung open again.At this point, the restaurant was nearly closing and empty, so it made sense that Mr. Krabs took that time to bring out his newest employee.

"Spongebob! Get out here!" He called, the door to the side of the cash register opened to a small square sea sponge, who smiled eagerly at them.

"This is you twos new co-worker, (Y/N). He will be a part of our serving staff from now on... Squidward?" The uninterested looking employee peered up at the crab.

"You will be training him on register and orders, he's mostly going to take your places running out the orders and doing the opening custodial work. " The new employee stood next to the small rowing boat counter, his name tag and hat signifying his new place in the Krusty Krab.

"So... uh... Get to it!" Mr. Krabs finished, noticing the odd silence between everyone and just deciding to go off to his office again. 

"Welcome to the best place to work in the world! The Krusty Krab! I just know you'll love it here!" He gave a dorky giggle and hugged (Y/N), giving him an odd shock from the unfiltered joy and unironic happiness.

"Heh, I hope so too. Uhm... Sponge...bob? Right?"

He nodded and gestured to the cashier, "-and this is my best friend Squidward!" The merman turned his attention. The older, slim bodied octopus sitting on his stool ignored the whole conversation, flipping the page of his magazine.

"Oh right, hi. Uhm, thanks for pointing me in the right direction earlier." Squidward nodded a bit, only giving him the notice he heard him.

"Well, I'll let you two get to know each other! I think I'm burning the fries!" The sponge joyously excused himself to the kitchen with a bit of a panic, leaving the two sea creatures alone. Squidward rolled his eyes, putting his reading material down and sighing.

"Alright, this isn't fucking rocket science, just pay attention..." He started, (Y/N) came a bit closer, nodding and looking over his shoulder a bit.

"Alright... So when someone places an order you're gonna write everything down on a..."(Y/N) listened and followed along as well as possible, not asking many questions and letting him talk. He droned on, going over the menu, the prices, making change, and how they count everything at the end of the night. Before either of them realized, they were side by side, [Y/N] leaning into the counter a bit pretty much sitting on the side of it.

The hour quickly finished, "Well, here, let me just show you..." Squidward gathered up all the counted money and stepping over the counter towards the office.

(Y/N) followed closely, watching from the other side of the desk as he opened the large safe, "The combination is on the back of the "Grocery List" sticky-note, cause Spongebob can't seem to remember it." (Y/N) nodded, noticing the voice of his new manager, Mr. Krabs and Spongebob talking in the kitchen. The loud slam of the kitchen door swinging open gave both the sea creatures a near-death experience.

"Alright you two- er, three- closing time!" A familiar sponge peeked out with the mop and bucket in hand, apparently having been cleaning. The crab laughed as he made his way to the front door, swinging the sign around and readying his keys. The three followed from the office, Squidward swooping by to snatch his magazine off the counter before leaving the building.

"Alright, see you three bright and early, rest up lads." He locked the door and then began his walk to his boatmobile. Spongebob started his way to his home, looking over his shoulder for his grumpy neighbour, who he forcibly escorted home each night, then noticing their co-worker lingering around the door, nervously looking around.

"Hey (Y/N)! Which way are you heading?" Spongebob called to him.

(Y/N) grinned nervously, "Uhm... I don't... I... I don't know?" They both looked at him confused, then Squidward's face set in with an understanding that Spongebob didn't quite grasp.

"Just come with me." He stated drowsily, beginning to walk with Spongebob. [Y/N] seemed a bit stunned with the response but followed after them none the less.

"He seems like a good guy..." He thought to himself, being dragged from his thoughts when the sea sponge spoke up again.

"So! Where you from (Y/N)? You been in Bikini Bottom long?"

He smiled a bit, "No actually, I just got here a few days ago, I came from Rock Bottom..." Squidward was visibly alerted to this, giving (Y/N) a quick glance from a 1000 mile stare he was holding the whole time before that.

"Wow! You must be so strong and tough! I know you'll make plenty of friends here, everyone's so nice! Like Squidward here!" Squidward rolled his eyes, making [Y/N] giggle a bit.

"OH! OH! OH! Look! That's me, Squidward and Patricks houses!" He pointed a bit down the road to a lot of three houses, or... what he assumed to be a third house, but it looked more like a giant rock.

"Patrick?" He questioned. "Oh yeah! He's my other best friend! You'll probably meet him tomorrow if you're staying with Squidward." He happily skipped off, as they approached the fork to Squidward's door.

"Alright, good night you two!" They both watched as Spongebob waved and disappeared into the front door. They shared a sigh in relief, the quiet washing over them. The octopus pinched the bridge of his nose and rubbed his temple. They both quietly approached the door, letting Squidward unlock it, and going inside. The room was dark and cold but quickly lit up with a warm glow of the corner lamp next to the couch.

"Well, the bathroom is the first door on the left," he pointed to the stairway.

"I'll get you some blankets, one minute." He walked off to the other room, disappearing in the dark doorway to the staircase, and turning down the hall, followed by the rustling of cloth. (Y/N) turned around to face the dimly lit living room, art decorated the walls and sculptures topped the shelves. A small radio and TV sat across from the couch and there was an array of music equipment and a large black instrument case in the far "corner" of the rounded room.

"Alright here," he returned from the hall, "if you're hungry help yourself to the fridge... I need to get some rest but I'll be back down to make dinner." He spoke quietly, at least in comparison to the much more energetic and loud sponge. He placed the blankets and pillow neatly on the couch and turned to go back upstairs.

Before he could leave, (Y/N) spoke up, "Thank you by the way..."

He stopped for a second, not looking away from the staircase, "Don't mention it..."

"Well, not to be rude but... Why are you even helping me?" He honestly thought he'd have to sleep on the bus bench again.

"I used to be homeless too, for a little while. Not like there was a reason not to." He quickly began walking again, making his way up the stairs before more questions could come. However (Y/N) probably couldn't question him anymore if he wanted to. He simply watched him leave, and then looked to the pile of blankets on the couch. He sighed and began to unfold and fluff out the blankets. Looking at the clock, it was already 9:00. Normally he may want to stay up for several more hours, but after today, (Y/N) was exhausted. So as soon as he laid down on the couch he was out. 

-12 A.M.-

(Y/N)'s eyes slowly opened, staring up at the ceiling. He wasn't totally sure why he even woke up but his head was pounding and his stomach was turning in pain from not eating. Groggily sitting up, he remembered what the octopus had told him earlier that night.

"Maybe there's something in the fridge..." He stumbled to the kitchen in the dark, he squints into the refrigerator, the bright light shining on a wrapped up bowl, it caught his eye cause the misspelt "(Y/N)" scrawled across it. Taking it out and pulling back the wrap, he looked over the bowl of spaghetti with kelp-balls. Smiling a bit, he closed the fridge and walked over to the microwave, popping it in and taking the cooking time to pour a glass of water. The headache still pounded in his head as he chugged it, filling the glass again and only then starting to slow down. He also needed to use the bathroom, leaving the bowl to cool he made his way up the stairs to the hall. It was much darker, only really able to see shapes in the darkness, he finds the bathroom door eventually. Cleaning up a little and making himself more comfortable, the headache started to ease.

'Maybe there's pain meds?' (Y/N) thought, opening the bathroom cabinet. There was mostly pill bottles, prescriptions and vitamins, some weird icy-hot creme, and not so miraculously, a bottle of aspirin.

"Well, its better than nothing." He grabs it off the shelf and heads out of the room, excited to get into his spaghetti. However, he stopped in his tracks at the sound of... soft sobbing? Coming from the door at the end of the hall, a dim glow crept from under the door.

"I...shouldn't intrude..." he thought to himself, worried but not wanting to seem rude... he continued his way down the stairs to the kitchen. Sitting on the couch with his meal and glass of water, he listened to the ambience of the room, the floorboards creaking with the wind, the moonlight shining in between the curtains... and the sobbing upstairs... A deep pit of worry started to set in, he had to at least check-in at this point. 

He silently made his way back to the bedroom door, taking a deep breath before softly knocking. The sobbing stopped suddenly, his hand reaching for the doorknob, the door cracked open slowly. Peeking in carefully, he slipped halfway through the door.

"I-I'm sorry, I just, wanted to make sure you were okay..." His gaze went to the lump under the blankets.

A soft sniffle came from the bed, "I...I'm fine...just leave me alone..." (Y/N) felt a guilty stab in his stomach, feeling like he invaded, he quickly started shuffling out of the room.

"I'm sorry you heard me..." The octopus whispered as (Y/N) closed the door, making him linger a bit at the other side.

"I'm sorry..." he whispered, going back downstairs. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, thank you for reading! Leave a kudos if you'd like to see more and comment any chapter ideas you'd like to see! I want to elaborate quite a bit with this story so even ideas to add in more characters and always appreciated.
> 
> Please send constructive critiques, I always want to improve chapters even when they've been completed!


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